However I want to be fair here, so as not to be accused of only bringing in one side of the story. Which leads us to ask, would we be doing better economically if the WEDC that Scott Walker created was actually competent and not just a way to reward donors with our tax dollars?

In the end, the money that towns across America gave General Motors did not matter.

When the automaker released a list of factories it was closing during
bankruptcy three years ago, communities that had considered themselves
G.M.’s business partners were among the targets.

For years, mayors and governors anxious about local jobs had agreed to
G.M.’s demands for cash rewards, free buildings, worker training and
lucrative tax breaks. As late as 2007, the company was telling local
officials that these sorts of incentives would “further G.M.’s strong
relationship” with them and be a “win/win situation,” according to town
council notes from one Michigan community.

Yet at least 50 properties on the 2009 liquidation list were in towns
and states that had awarded incentives, adding up to billions in
taxpayer dollars, according to data compiled by The New York Times.

Some officials, desperate to keep G.M., offered more. Ohio was proposing
a $56 million deal to save its Moraine plant, and Wisconsin, fighting
for its Janesville factory, offered $153 million.

But their overtures were to no avail. G.M. walked away and, thanks to a
federal bailout, is once again profitable. The towns have not been so
fortunate, having spent scarce funds in exchange for thousands of jobs
that no longer exist.

It's not just the auto plants its every company that can get their hands on our money and its any town/city/state/village in the country willing to hand them our money:

In 2010, Rhode Island, which has the nation’s
second-highest unemployment rate, recruited Curt Schilling, a former Red
Sox pitcher, to move his video game company from Massachusetts. The
company, 38 Studios, had never released a game and was not making money,
but the governor at the time had the state guarantee $75 million in
loans.

The company failed and dismissed all of its roughly 400 workers this
May. Rhode Island taxpayers are now on the hook for the loans.

Officials said part of the difficulty was that communities do not get much say in a company’s business strategy.

“We, as communities, stake our futures with these people who are
supposed to know what they’re doing, and sometimes they don’t,” said
Arthur Walker, a businessman in Shreveport and former chairman of the
city’s chamber of commerce.

Mr. Walker and other officials in Shreveport know firsthand. In 2000,
they were worried that G.M. would close a plant in their area and
responded with a generous proposal: the city would cut the company’s gas
bill and provide work force training grants. In addition, G.M. would
benefit by a recent increase in one of the state’s income tax credits.

Eager to encourage innovation, Shreveport officials suggested ways the
city could assist G.M. in building electric cars. “We wanted to be part
of the future,” said Mr. Walker, whose brother worked at the plant.

G.M. took the city’s incentives but not its business advice and began building the giant Hummer there.

“We knew they needed to build green cars — I mean, who builds a Hummer
for the 21st century?” Mr. Walker said. “It was a losing proposition
that we found ourselves in. We couldn’t win because those people weren’t
making the correct business decisions, in my view. When it didn’t work,
we’re the ones left holding the bag.”

The Hummer was discontinued in 2010, and the Shreveport factory closed
this August, the final victim of G.M.’s bankruptcy.